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There's No Pulpit Like Home
At the Men's breakfast last month, Larry James mentioned George Barna's book, "Revolution". The article, "There's No Pulpit Like Home", in Time magazine shows that the "revolution" is already creating waves that even the secular media is beginning to notice. In "Revolution", Barna draws conclusions from surveys and trends to predict that in approximately twenty years half of the traditional church campus population will migrate to alternative forms of Church. This will mean a steady decline for many traditional churches that will put significant pressure on their ability to maintain staff, debt, programs and even their physical campus. This is a social phenomenon that has suddenly (within the last few years) begun to takeoff in the United States. Many traditional churches are in denial while others are trying to find ways to grow God's Kingdom in this new outbreak of an old model of Church.
Gerry: It seems that at present, we seem be trying both approaches. So many congregations now have the traditional service on Sunday morning and small groups in the evening.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm comfortable with this. If I had to guess, I'd say that the evening group more closely mirrors 1st century Christians. But I would say that our task isn't so much to mimic our earliest Christian ancestors as it is to mimic Christ.
Good point, Tim. Hopefully, we can see the advantages of both Church models and see new Christians being added, new leaders being formed and new groups being spawned. Ideally, these different gatherings are not just regroupings of the same people but expansions into previously un-churched or de-churched populations. Some Church leaders are under pressure to make their saltshaker bigger and fuller rather than having the perspective of shaking the salt out into the world.
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